372
n Exod.xix. αὐτοῖς λόγον: 20. " οὐκ ἔφερον γὰρ τὸ διαστελλόμενον, “ Κἂν θηρίον
13. Gal. iv.
ο
iii, 12, et
θίγῃ τοῦ ὄρους, λιθοβοληθήσεται, ἢ βολίδι κατατοξευθήσεται! ᾿᾿- 26; Apoc. 21. καὶ, οὕτω φοβερὸν ἦν τὸ φανταζόμενον, Μωσῆς εἶπεν, ““ExpoBds
xxi, 2, το. εἰμι καὶ ἔντρομος “᾿᾿ 22. “ ἀλλὰ προσεληλύθατε Σιὼν ὄρει, καὶ πόλει
' This clause occurs in none of the uncials—the sole authority is ‘‘nonnulli
minusculi’’,
Ver. 22. The Christian standing and attainment are now described in contrast with the Jewish. Ye are brought into the fellowship of eternal realities. ἀλ- λὰ προσεληλύθατε, “but ye have drawn near” (already you have entered into your eternal relation to the unseen) to Σιὼν ὄρει, “in the twenty-three pas- sages in the LXX where the two words are combined the order is uniformly ὄρος Σιὼν and not Σιὼν ὄρος. Evidently here the ‘Zion mountain’ is mentally con- trasted with another, the ‘Sinai moun- tain’. And thus the omission of ὄρει in the revised text of ver. 18 is virtually supplied’? (Vaughan). The ideal Zion is the place of God’s manifestation of His presence (Ps. ix. 11, Ixxvi. 2) but also of His people’s abode (Ps. cxlvi. 10; Isa. i. 27 and passim). It is therefore impossible to find another particular of the enumeration in πόλει θεοῦ ζῶν- τος Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐπουρανίῳ, as if the former were “the transcendent sphere of God’s existence where He is manifested only to Himself,” and the latter ‘‘the place where His people gather and where He is manifested to them”. (Cf. Isa. lx. 14, κληθήσῃ πόλις Κυρίου, Σιών); the mount and the city are viewed together as the meeting-place of God and His people, where the ‘“liv- ing God” manifests fully His eternal fulness and sufficiency. It is “the heav- enly Jerusalem” (cf. Gal. iv. 26, 4 ἄνω Ἱερουσαλήμ and Rey. xxi. 2, ἣ πόλις ἡ μέλλουσα [καὶ μένουσα], xiii. τή) as being not the earthly and made with hands but the ultimate reality [cf the beautiful description in Philo, De Som., ii. 38, and the Republic, ix. p. 592, where after declaring that no such city as he has been describing exists on earth Plato goes on to say, ᾿Αλλ᾽ ἐν οὐρανῷ tows παράδειγμα ἀνάκειται τῷ βουλομένῳ ὁρᾶν καὶ ὁρῶντι ἑαυτὸν κατοικίζειν. Also the fine passage in Seneca, De Otio, chap. 31, on the two Republics.] καὶ μνριάσιν ἀγγέλων, and to myriads of angels, the usual accompaniment of God’s glory and ministers of His will, as in Deut. xxxii. 2; Rev. v. 11; and Dan.
Vii. IO, μύριαι μυριάδες παρειστήκεισαν αὐτῷ. The οοπδιγαοέίοη of the following words is much debated. (1) πανηγύρει καὶ ἐκκλησ. may be construed in apposi- tion with pup. ἀγγέλων, to myriads of angels, a festal gathering and assembly of the first-born enrolled in heaven; or, (2) a new particular may be introduced with καὶ ἐκκλησ. ; or, (3) a new par- ticular may be introduced with πανηγύ- pet, “‘to myriads of angels, to a festal gathernig and assembly of the first-born.” On the whole, the first seems preferable. For although angels are not elsewhere called the “first-born” of God, they are called “‘sons of God” (Job. i. 6, ii. 1, xxxvill. 7; Gen. vi. 2, 4; Ps. Ixxxix. 6) and the designation is here appropriate to denote those who are the pristine in- habitants of heaven. Cf. the first choir of Angelicals in the ‘‘ Dream of Geron
tius,’’ who sing :—
“ΤῸ us His elder race He gave To battle and to win,
Without the chastisement of pain, Without the soil of sin”;
and Augustine in De Civ. Dei, x. 7, ‘cum angelis sumus una civitas Dei. . . cujus pars in nobis peregrinatur, pars in illis opitulatur”. πανήγυρις, meaning a festal gathering of the whole people, and ἐκκλησία meaning the assembly of all enrolled citizens, seem much more applic- able to angels. They are enrolled as citizens (&moyey. see the Fayiim and Oxyrhynchus Papyri, passim) in heaven, and welcome the younger sons now in- troduced. The myriads of angels which on Sinai had made their presence known in thunders and smoke and tempest, terri- fying the people, appear now in the familiar form ofa well-ordered community in the peaceable guise of citizens rejoicing over additions to their ranks (Luke xv. Io), καὶ κριτῇ θεῷ πάντων, ‘and to a Judge who is God of all,’’ and by whose judgment you must therefore stand or fall (cf. x. 27, 30, 31). Among the realities to which they had been introduced this could not be omitted. He who is God of all living is the ultimate